Needs a few more VOLTS, no?

Well, another

"Looking forward to it!"

has gone down the drain for me.

I thought a live-action Voltron would be a lot of fun.  Then I saw the concept art.

Sorry, no offense to anyone involved, but NO.

At least not for me.  Yes, I expected a redesign.  But I just don't like this one.  And besides my personal pereferences, don't you think it looks entirely too similar to another giant robot franchise of films?  (I bet you can guess that I am not a fan of the look of that, either.  I've seen plenty of "John/Jane Doe" homespun animations that run circles around the look of those films, mostly because they kept true to the original cartoon.)

Oh well.

Closing the Window on the Drafts

All righty.

I’m done with the run-through after the

Peter Pan: Betwixt-and-Between revisions.

It wound up with quite a few more changes.  And I’m rather happy besides those, since I ran across the very type of glitch I thought I might. I had a bit of detail leftover from the previous incarnation that would have read as an incongruity with the rest of the story as it now stands.

The word count is now 50,063. If you do the math, that’s 36 words cut from last time. But that’s not really the truth. Fact is I cut a great deal more than that, nearly going below the 50,000 mark. GASP! I think the lowest number had been 18 (over).  But you see, I added quite a bit, too, going all the way back up to 83 or so.  So it fluctuated immensely as I went along.  Call me banal, but I found it interesting watching the tally go up and down.

I also caught a couple of neat references/parallels to Barrie’s Peter and Wendy that I didn’t notice before. Some of what I took out had been direct references, actually. I realized that a few of them probably did more harm than good in the sense that they wound up undermining the joy of discovering them when reading the well-known story. (Especially if reading the Peter Pan story from the beginning!) There are still some overt mentions here and there, but not without cause.

As before, I’m pleased with the overall result. Like I had said, it’s a smoother and more satisfying piece.

And now... I shall send it along to Andrea Jones. Will she run it up her flagpole and salute it?

Go Storth...

You know the "Captcha" entries for when you comment on the internet?

If not, it's explained here.

Well, sometimes the results are quite amusing. Often the words they have don't actually exist, all the better for the rationale behind the service.

Not that it's particularly uncanny or anything, but this one got me thinking:

storthed conclusion

I'm not sure what "storthed" means (it's not a word) but it sounds great with "conclusion." I'm getting a vibe of negativity. 'The book is plotted very well and the characters engaging but it all comes to head in a storthed conclusion.' Seems like it should come to mean something...

Child-alike

A little while ago I had a post about Doctor Who.  I mentioned my friend Nightfogger who's an avid fan.  He posted this quote on Facebook and I just had to share it.

There's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes.
 - The Doctor

99 Pages Off a Done Man's Chest

Well, just moments ago I put the last word into Peter Pan: Betwixt and-Between.  Yes, it's now finished for the second time.  Hosah.

I'm quite glad of the revision, for it's definitely a smoother and more engaging book than its previous incarnation.  A little of the credit goes to the characters.  When called upon, they really came through for me.  A lot of credit goes to Anon, who showed me the turbulences along with heaps of encouragement.  Toward the end of the process a scene greatly improved because I tinkered it out with Anon via email.  (I shared it as per it containing the result of a particular good suggestion.)  Much must go to Barrie and a bit to James Fenimore Cooper.   And lastly, I suppose, to whatever it is that makes me write.

The second word tally is one shy of ending in a 100.  It just qualifies for a novel at 50,099.  Not that it should be ascribed any sort of significance, but I cannot help but think of the upcomming centennial of the publication Peter and Wendy.  It's just one year away and here I am one word shy of 100.

I shall, naturally, read it through as a whole again.  Especially since I tinkered around in the middle bits here and there after the revise-through.

And then (as you probably know by now) it's off to Andrea Jones, author of Hook & Jill.  I'm looking forward to her critique of it.  She has such a wonderful perspective, approach and understanding of Barrie's world and I'm eager to share what I have wrought with the pieces of imagination I had available.

Then what happens?  Que sera sera.

What's Up, Doctor?

Sometimes I’m what I call a “peripheral fan.” That means that I generally appreciate something, but I am not ga-ga for it, nor do I seek it out regularly. But I know enough to get by and will gladly watch (or read or whatever the case may be) that ‘something’ every so often.

Well, one thing I am a peripheral fan of is Doctor Who.

I just wanted to say that I think Doctor Who is pretty damn ingenious. if you’re not aware of him, you’ve been in a virtual closet. He’s been around since 1963. At any rate, here’s a good description, as per how it appears on Wikipedia:

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric humanoid alien known as the Doctor who travels through time and space in his spacecraft, the TARDIS (an acronym for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes, saves civilizations, defeats alien, human and technological enemies of sorts, helping others and righting wrongs, as well as improving the way people, aliens and robots choose to live their lives.

What I really like about this show is the built-in aspects that allow for ease of production. One could argue that they’re cop-outs, I suppose, but when it’s woven into the fabric of story with such wonderful coloration, it’s hard to easily dismiss it as anything but adding to the overall fun.

Not mentioned in that summary is that the Doctor has died many times. But you see, he’s actually a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Gallifreyans will “regenerate,” and can do so 12 times, for a total of 13 incarnations. What fun! But what that means in practical terms is that 13 different actors can play him over the course of, er, time. Not only is that cooler/fairer to actors, but it also, of course, enables the story/character to go on for many years. (But not forever... they’re on the 11th Doctor now!)

Another deliciously conspicuous “cop-out” is the TARDIS itself. It’s supposed to have a “cloaking device,” by which it seamlessly blends into its surroundings so as not to disrupt space-time (or expose the Doctor.) Well, we only see it as a 1950s-style British police box. The reason? It has a malfunction of its Chameleon Circuit and is thus stuck in that shape. Not only is this convenient for filming and budgetary concerns, it present quite a “joke.” It’s rather funny on its own, but to have it negating one of the very technological wonders of the Doctor’s device... that’s especially humorous.  [Note:  My friend Nightfogger who is a devoted fan of the Doctor who read this post before it went up informs me:  "We do get to see the TARDIS as other things a few times (a harpsichord, a stone pillar) but it always ends up back as the police box."]  See, I'm just peripheral.  :)
And since he can travel in time, well, that allows for any number of scenarios. One of my personal favorites is when the TARDIS lands on the deck of a ship at sea. It frightens the hell out of the crew and passengers and they all jump overboard, thus instantly and forever abandoning their vessel. The Doctor looks over and sees the name of the ship: Mary Celeste. He comments on that mystery being solved. (Click the ship name if you aren’t aware of it.) But how great is it to not be limited to a particular time or place?  From one episode to the next you can be in the future or the roaring 20’s.

So there you have it. Wacky “devices” nicely tucked into a witty, sometimes funny and always poignant storyline. No wonder it’s the longest-running science fiction television show in the world as well as the most successful science fiction series of all time.

Tower Power

In this day and age (21st Century, no less) we think we have "seen it all."

But here's something unprecedented.

I especially like it because it has to do with novels.

When it comes to adapting a narrative book into the moving picture medium there's generally a choice between making a film or a TV mini-series.  Sure, there are variants such as making a book into two films, or producing a regular series out of it.  I've often expressed that I think Peter and Wendy would work best as a mini-series.  And truth be told, I think my What If It's a Trick Question? lends itself better to episodic television, just given the nature of the piece.

So what's this about unprecedented?

Stephen King's popular series The Dark Tower is being brought to the screen.  So?  How about...BOTH.  Yep, both the big silver screen and the "small screen" of TV (which is kind of a weird term nowadays given the size of many TVs).  After much debate and stops and starts on how best to handle King's epic as a "movie" they eventually came up with a solution.

It will first appear as a film, with theatrical release.  It will then come to television (with the same actors from the movie) and continue on for a while as a series/show.  It will next (contiguously) move back into another film (theater) and... you get the idea.  It will be three movies, with a television series (as part of the the continuing saga) as bridges between the flicks.

I can't say (who can?) how well it will work or turn out... but nevertheless, it is highly intriguing.  And at any rate, historic.
Ron Howard will be directing.

I will shamefully admit that I have not gotten around to reading The Dark Tower.  But I probably will now that it's going to be adapted so "never before seen"ly.  Besides, my fan Anon adores the series and (if I recall correctly) compared WIIaTQuestion? in terms of 'epicness' (to some degree).  I should probably read it, then, no?